Field Guide To The American Peasant

My younger sister used to take ballet lessons (she was really serious and pretty good as a matter of fact). Her teacher was from Russia and had at one time been a famous dancer in Europe until an injury ended her career. She moved here with her mother some time after WW II. Her mother was from an aristocratic Russian family that fled that country when the Bolsheviks took over. Pretty interesting but the reason for mentioning all this is to get to this, this ancient Russian aristocrat once complained to my mom that American peasants did not even know they were peasants. She said that the peasants in Europe at least knew they were peasants but American peasants did not know their place in society. We all thought she was sort of charming in her way but nevertheless daft. I don't think that anymore.

That old Russian aristocrat was right. We don't know we are peasants but we are. The rich know it. The politicians know it. The banks, insurance companies and stores like Walmart all know it. Yet the American peasant remains clueless. Our whole system depends on the American peasant never figuring out that he is indeed a peasant. Once the peasant gets out of the bag there will be no getting him back inside. The occupy Wall Street movement is a peasant uprising. You will never hear the media calling it that because they don't want us peasants to know our true status, they know we would find it unacceptable. That is why Mitt Romney says he believes in two classes the rich and the soon to be rich, he thinks that kind of BS will mollify us peasants.

We probably have this kind of condescending treatment coming to us too. I mean we are the ones who refuse to accept the reality of our status. We support our aristocrats because we cling to Horatio Alger fairy tales of peasants becoming landed gentry through pluck hard work and just a smidgen of luck. Meanwhile we get nickled and dimed to death by the corporate aristocracy.

Jeff Foxworthy has that you may be a redneck if... routine. Here's the deal you don't have to be a redneck to be a peasant but if you are a redneck you are a particular type of peasant. America has a variety of peasant types. Maybe we need a field guide to the American peasant since they seem to be largely unrecognized.

If you work in the fast food industry you are a peasant. If you work at a factory you are an endangered species of peasant. If you teach school you probably don't believe you are peasant, this is especially troubling because you are very likely misinforming your students of their own peasantry. If you work in a store you are a peasant. If you anticipate get money back from your tax return you are a peasant. If you shop at discount stores you are a peasant. If you buy fast food more than once a year you are a peasant. If rising gas prices have made you think about your driving habits you are a peasant. Face it you are a peasant. The elite has thought of you this way for years. What are you going to do about it?